This presentation highlights the historical background of key people and milestones that has brought us the modern general purpose electronic computer.

1. @dbmackey
A (very) Brief History of
the Computer
(according to David Mackey)

2. @dbmackey
Who are you?
Trained Mathematicians or Engineers?
Trained Historians?
Who am I?
Geek, Digital Marketer & Entrepreneur
Bachelor of Mathematics in Computer Science with Electrical Engineering, Honours, Coop,
University of Waterloo, 1989
(not a trained historian)
Questions

3. @dbmackey
Computing Tools
Slide RuleAbacus

4. @dbmackey
1815-1852
Ada Lovelace
Mathematician
First computer programmer
1642-1716
Gottfried Wilhelm Liebiniz
Mathematician
Calculus
Early computing theories
Binary numbers!!!!
1791-1871
Charles Babbage
Mathematician
Difference Engine (never built)
Analytical Engine (design never finished)
Mechanical, not Electrical => slower!
He hated street music, and in particular
the music of organ grinders
Early Computing

5. @dbmackey
up to 1950s & 1960s
Human Computers
Movie: Hidden Figures
Early Computing

6. @dbmackey
General Purpose Computer
(Universal Computing Machine)
Electronic
Digital (binary)
Stored Programmable Control
(electronic memory; no humans)

7. @dbmackey
vonNeumann
Architecture
1
+1
==
10
Math Theory
1900-1931 1936 1945
Computing Theory
General Purpose Computer
(Universal Computing Machine)

8. @dbmackey
0000 0001
+ 0000 0001
========
0000 0010
vonNeumann
Architecture
Math Theory
1900-1931 1936 1945
Computing Theory
General Purpose Computer
(Universal Computing Machine)

9. @dbmackey
1862-1943
David Hilbert
German Mathematician
23 Unsolved Problems - Paris 1900
Entscheidungsproblem
(decision problem) - 1928
1906-1978
Kurt Gödel
Austrian/American Mathematician
Gödel’s Incompleteness Theorems - 1931
Gödel Numbering:
Math functions represented by numbers
e.g. “+” represented by 5
“-“ represented by 6
Math Theory

10. @dbmackey
1902-1995
Alonzo Church - American Mathematician
1936
Lambda Calculus
Church-Turing Thesis
1912-1954
Alan Turing - British Mathematician
1936
Turing Machine
Universal Turing Machine
Computing Theory

11. @dbmackey
1936-1938
Turing studied at Institute for
Advanced Study (IAS), Princeton, USA
Alonzo Church was Turing’s PhD Advisor
Met John vonNeumann
Computing Theory
1936
"On Computable Numbers,
with an Application to the
Entscheidungsproblem”
Open Domain!

12. @dbmackey
Electronic Computers
(Special Purpose)
1943-1945
ENIAC
John W. Mauchly & J. Presper Eckert
Artillery Firing Tables
Thermonuclear Weapon
John vonNeumann Aug/Sept 1944
Octal not digital
Turing complete?
WWII Innovation 1937-1945
1937-1942
Atanasoff–Berry Computer
Special purpose
not Turing complete
1940-1945
Bombe: Alan Turing
Colossus: Tommy Flowers
WWII Code breaking
Movie: The Imitation Game

13. @dbmackey
Stored Programmable Computer
(Universal Turing Machine)
EDVAC (SPC)
“First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC”
Limited distribution on June 30th, 1945
Open Domain!
1903-1957
John vonNeumann
Hungarian-American Mathematician
Institute of Advanced Studies, Princeton
Manhattan Project
ENIAC Advisor

14. @dbmackey
General Purpose Computer
John vonNeumann
consults with IBM and assigns
patent rights (May 1, 1945)
MANIAC (IAS Computer) 1946-1952
Turing’s Universal Machine
Thermo Nuclear Explosions,
Weather
Biology
Book: Turing’s Cathedral
“First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC
EDVAC eventually orphaned
Mauchly & Eckert
Business venture (1946)
BINAC, UNIVAC (1951)
Remington Rand
Alan Turing
Automatic Computing Engine (ACE)
Started in 1946
Turing based this research on
von Neumann’s First Draft of a Report
on the EDVAC.
Many Others

15. @dbmackey
vonNeumann Architecture
1945

16. @dbmackey
Analog to/from Digital = VERY VERY POWERFUL!
Analog
to
Digital
Converter
Digital
to
Analog
Converter
ADC DAC
So What?

17. @dbmackey
Mainframe Personal Computer Laptop
Tablet Smartphone
Global Impact
Almost 70 years old!

18. @dbmackey
History of
Computer Software & Programming
1991 - Linux
1975 - Microsoft
50s&60s - IBM
vonNeumann
Architecture
Touches every
part of
human life

19. @dbmackey
History of the Internet
23 Billion connected vonNeumann devices

20. @dbmackey
Two connected vonNeumann devices

21. @dbmackey
255 connected vonNeumann devices

22. @dbmackey
1020 connected vonNeumann devices x 23 million

23. @dbmackey
Artificial Intelligence
Future
Quantum Computing

24. @dbmackey
References
Alan Turing: The Enigma
https://www.turing.org.uk/index.html
Book: Turing’s Cathedral: The Origins of the Digital Universe
Author: George Dyson
Internet Society’s Brief History of the Internet
https://www.internetsociety.org/internet/history-internet/brief-history-internet/
Oral history interview with J. Presper Eckert
https://conservancy.umn.edu/handle/11299/107275